It's Sunday Somewhere

Ok so I am a little behind schedule for my Sunday post, however I figure it's probably still Sunday somewhere in the world, so technically I'm not really behind.. Right?

I have been feeling completely un-motivated & tired lately, which I am putting down to my sugar and alcohol detox I started last Tuesday (yup that's right, no more booze and no more baking, it's so difficult! I'm aiming for 3 weeks), and it doesn't help that the Autumn is finally starting to show, the weather has been all over the place, from really humid and muggy to cold, wet and windy. Which leads to the point I was going to make, - When it rains all weekend, all I want to do is stay inside and bake!

Instead I found this great vegan food blog called Holy Cow! Vegan Recipes, which I just had to share with you all! I've only made one thing so far, but pretty much everything looks amazing and I can't wait to try out more recipes (especially the sweet stuff haha!), as an added bonus, it's not one of those vegan blogs that uses a lot of weird ingredients, so it's great for non-vegans too!


Below are a few pictures of especially delicious looking recipes which I can't wait to try!

Pasta with Chipotle Cashew Cream

Fennel crusted Potatoes

Besan Chilla (eggless omelet)

Coconut Muffins with Orange Glaze

Mmm!  This is making me want to go to the kitchen and get cooking (but instead I have assignments to do and classes to go to, boo).

Do you have any favourite cooking blogs? I'd love to hear about them!

xx

Lucy

Just a quick picture

Just a quick picture tonight! I have been totally swamped with school work this week, hence the silence, but I will get back to regular posts on Sunday :)

Coat, bag, gloves and hat are vintage.

Hope you have a great weekend!

xx
Lucy

Baking time!

I've been thinking (ok drooling) about Joy's Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread recipe she posted two weeks ago... I finally got around to making it today, and it was even better than I imagined!  Think a cinnamon brioche but with thinner layers (that literally pull-apart, which makes it fun to eat) and more cinnamon, and lots of butter. The butter and sugar actually ended up caramelising around the base of the loaf!

The only problem I had with this recipe is that my dough refused to do any rising. But it still turned out delicious, so it doesn't really matter. Check out the recipe here.

xx
Lucy

Afternoons

As far as I am concerned, all afternoons should include coffee, and a sweet treat!

Sadly I haven't had the chance to do any baking lately (although I have been snacking on a block of Lindt chilli dark chocolate which is delicious). Anyway, I just wanted to share with you my cute as a button 1950's "coffee" cup (ok ok I know it's a tea cup, but I use this one exclusively for my afternoon coffee). Like a lot of my favourite vintage things, this one was a gift from my sister (check out her new blog here).

xx
Lucy

Bingo and the Cabaret

Hello my lovely readers!

I have been an awfully slack blogger recently haven't I?  It feels like my blog posts come in waves, depending on how much time and motivation I have (which lately hasn't been very much).  From now on I will try to post a little more regularly.. Lets say you should hear from me at least every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday (I'll write it in my diary).

Now, back to the title of this post!  I loove bingo, but I've never been to a live bingo game... And recently quite a few bloggers I follow have been making me a little envious by going to bingo games. So when I found out there was a bingo game happening at a local bar the day after my birthday, I was pretty excited! I knew my friends would need a bit of coaxing to come along, so I decided to go play bingo to celebrate my birthday with my oldest (as in longest, they're not that old hah) friends. That way they had to come.

Bitchin' Bingo is a little more.. adult themed, which made it a LOT of fun (ok well maybe the booze had something to do with it too!). The only sad thing is the bar it was held in is pretty dark, so almost all of my pictures are super blurry (I hate using flash but have rather shaky hands).

So here is a rather blurry picture of all our bingo cards (only one was a winner, a $30 bar tab which was used up right away heh).

And a picture of us of course (bar one, who was behind the camera)

If you're in Auckland, I highly recommend going to a Bitchin' Bingo game!  She does several fortnightly spots in various bars around the inner city.


But what about the Cabaret I mention in the title? Well that was the next night, and was a surprise additional birthday gift from my man!  We actually went to two shows, which were showing as part of the Auckland Fringe Festival. The first show was called Smoke and Mirrors which included a live band, transvestites, a magician, a bearded lady, and some pretty amazing acrobatics (my description doesn't really do it justice, but it was awesome, and do click on the link to find out more!), and the second show was The Ziggy Star Dust Meets Tiny Tim Songbook, or Comparison is Violence performed by the wonderful drag artist Taylor Mac (click on the link to find out more). If either of these shows are going to be playing anywhere near you, I definitely recommend them both (they were my first ever cabarets, so I can't tell you how they compare, but I thoroughly enjoyed them!).

The cabaret shows were both performed in the spiegel tent, which is a beautiful art deco tent, and is a far cry from most tents you see today. I managed to snap a few pictures, both inside the tent, and out in the square (and yup, I was wearing my latest completed sewing project!)

These are booths inside the tent.

Hope this post wasn't too long for you!

xx
Lucy

It's my birthday!

That's right! Today I turn 24! I'm not normally a big fan of my birthday, but this year for some reason I was super excited!  The day started at midnight opening gifts from my man in bed before sleep time (I've never opened presents in bed before, so it was a total novelty!), opening more gifts from him first thing in the morning (still in bed hehe), and then off to my Mums place for breakfast!

On the way to my Mum's

Mmmm Waffles

The dogs love waffles too!

My candles

Opening presents!

After a nice relaxing breakfast, it was off to school for me (I had classes until 8:30pm, not so nice on my birthday). Because of this, I actually got to have my birthday cake on Sunday night...

Our traditional family birthday cake is a flourless dark chocolate and almond cake, and boy is it delicious!! It's only made when there is a birthday in the family, but luckily I come from a larger family, so we get to eat this seven times a year!

My evening consisted of yummy pizza and beer, as well as another birthday cake, made by my boyfriend! Now I am very full and sleepy!

Hope you've had a lovely day,
xx
Lucy

A peek at my latest sewing project

Here's a quick peek at my most recent sewing project... Very blurry pictures, I will take some proper ones for you soon!

And I had a little play around with the above picture.. But that's how I wore my hair, it turned out so well!
The giant hair bow was inspired by both Esme and the Lane way and the lovely Curly Chronicles .. And when my grandfather saw me he asked if I was dressed like the Easter bunny.. I don't quite get it, but I don't mind, Easter bunny = endless stash of chocolate!

xx
Lucy

Family

The recent events in Christchurch, as well as the (unrelated) death of a close friends sister, have been a big reminder of how dear my family (and friends!) are to me. It's always SO much fun when all my siblings and I hangout, I really couldn't ask for a better family!

The photograph below is of me and my older siblings having breakfast in bed at my dads place (check out that wallpaper!).

Making Pizza!

We got a pizza stone for Christmas, so have been making heaps of pizza lately, it's so delicious!   Last week I decided to try out Casey's pizza dough recipe, it was really good (click on the link for the recipe). It made a great crispy thin base (I am not a fan of thick crusts).

Mixing the flour (you can see the honey, yeast and warm water doing it's thing on the left.
If you don't eat honey, this can just as easily be left out)

Kneading dough

Into the hot water cupboard!

Roll it out nice and thin

Making the sauce

For the sauce, I don't really follow any recipe.. I usually fry a few cloves of garlic and some chilli in olive oil, add a small can of tomato paste (130g), and can of chopped tomatoes, some basil, paprika, oregano, salt and pepper.

Yum!

We generally put mushroom, olives, grilled eggplant, zucchini and capsicum on our pizza, and then when  comes out of the oven, some fresh basil on top. I also keep meaning to make both chilli and garlic oil, to drizzle over the pizza before eating, which makes it even more delicious!  (oh we don't put cheese on our pizza, but this would be good with cheese too).

What do you like to put on your pizza?

xx
Lucy

A proper outfit post.

To make up for yesterday's picture!

Hat: Vintage (a gift from my sister )
Top: Dotti
Skirt: Pin Up Girl Clothing
Bag: Vintage
Shoes: Plasticland (last year)

xx
Lucy

Lazy Days

Lazy days. The days when you can't be bothered with your appearance, you're tired, and want to hide in bed all day. The days where total ease and comfort rules. I try not to blog about these days (they usually involve my trusty jeans, a t-shirt and sneakers).

Yesterday was one of those days, however I resisted the call of denim, and instead went with an oversized band t-shirt and black skirt, brightened up a little with a colourful belt and a flower in my hair.

What do you do on days like these?

xx
Lucy